Backlit
by Falling Stardust
Summary: Night used to be beautiful to Benjamin Barker. Now, to Sweeney Todd, it's only the dark." Reflections on light sources and the sky by various characters. Chapter three: Sun, up.
1. Stars

**A/N: After staring at my computer screen for half an hour, I said to myself, "Self, it's been half a year and you still don't have any stories up on . Go write something, ya lazy girl!" So that's all very well, but I don't write multichaptered fanfiction (or anything multichaptered, really) without a ridiculous amount of time, so the first thing you're going to get from me is…Free form poetry/drabble thing, which is what I'm best at. Forgot to mention, this is a Sweeney Todd fic (as you probably know), it could be movie or musical (but it seems more like movie to me, because of the window's description) and it might have other chapters added onto it (those chapters will be free form too, if it comes into existence). I'll shut up now. Enjoy!**

**Stars**

It's night, and he hates it.

Evening is all very well.

He still gets some customers,

still can continue his war aganst humanity;

The bloody shirts,

neatly folded in a corner,

are proof of **that.**

But between nine-

When people stop coming for a shave-

and one-

By which time he can lay on the chair,

perhaps get an hour of rest

before the nightmares start-

he's nothing to do but brood,

staring out the huge window,

pacing along the wall,

slumped in his mechanical monster of a chair.

Waiting.

And thinking.

He thinks of the past, sometimes,

and as he looks out the huge window

on the night

that used to be so beautiful,

he can't help but make comparisons.

Before,

London became a moonlit fairytale at night,

everything quiet, hushed,

drenched in silver,

Magical.

Now,

London looks even darker and grimier

when lit only by gas lamps

and the thin strips of moonlight

trying to force their way

through clouds and smog.

He looks down.

Without daylight to whitewash it,

the newfound poverty of the street

on which he once lived

is even more appalling.

Gone are the flowers in windows

or cheerful awnings

that held their colors,

even at night.

In their place,

beggars and prostitutes line the walks,

slumped against the buildings like rag dolls,

unable to hold themselves up.

He looks up.

You used to be able to see the stars,

every one of them,

if you looked out this window

when it was dark.

Lucy would know the name of evey constellation,

and he'd watch the path her finger traced,

trying to make a bear or a fish

out of wavy lines.

Now, the stars are obscured

By the same smog that blots out the silvery moonlight.

He can't say he doesn't miss them.

Without the stars, every thing seems black as pitch,

Even when lit by the flickering gas lamps.

Night used to be magical to Benjamin Barker.

Now, to Sweeney Todd,

it's just the dark.

**End note: Like it? Hate it? Feel like hunting me down and stabbing me to death with a bread knife? Tell me in a review, please. I do have an idea for a companion piece, so tell me if I should continue.**


	2. Moon

A/N: This is chapter two of "Backlit"

**A/N: This is chapter two of "Backlit". See if you can guess who it is before the end of the chapter. (This is fairly obvious.)**

**Disclaimer: Len Cariou is the awesomest Sweeney ever. **

Moon

The clouds have rolled aside for once,

Exposing the luminous moon.

She stares up at it.

She used to pretend

(when she was younger)

that she was the daughter

of the glowing orb

outside her window,

that she was only passing through London

on her way to a palace in the sky.

You couldn't blame her really;

her father

(she had been told)

was a hardened criminal,

and her mother was a lunatic.

Her adoptive father

a frightful man

who stared at her in ways

that made her uncomfortable.

So she told herself that she was a starchild,

That none of these people

were really connected to her in any way.

She knows better now,

and she is even more frightened

of the man she called "Father".

But now there is nobody

but her sailor she was taken away from.

She looks out of the window of the asylum

And wishes that

she could believe her fairytales again,

that Johanna Barker was related to nobody

but the moon.

**Reviews make me smile! :) **


	3. Sun

**A/N: I've realized that I haven't updated this for almost six months, and I grovel at your feet in apology. Please don't let my extreme procrastination affect your opinion of this next chapter.**

Sun

She wanders the cloudy market and hears

Fragmented laughter

Filtering through the years.

The market.

The witch's shop

And the dark empty room above.

The Judge's manor

With the pretty china girl

So sad in the window.

She goes between the three

Listening to the laughter

And the screams

Under the slate grey sky

So she can pretend to remember

The gleam off brown curls

The edge of a smile

A voice that whispers endearments

But never a face

Or a name.

The clouds roll back

Just for a moment

And she's in the market

And the sun hits her face  
And she doesn't need to

pretend

to remember.

And the market is bustling cheerfully

And there are flowers

Where there is a barber's stall

And she's holding a laughing baby girl

With sunlight hair.

And she's laughing too.

And the kind voice

Has a face to his smile

And he asks her

Does she still remember his name?

And she opens her mouth to say

Of course

And she realizes that she doesn't.

And she starts to panic

And the sun hides again

And the market is dingy once more

And the man and the baby are gone

And the name

"Benjamin"

Wanders through her tattered mind

And is instantly forgotten.

**End A/N: It was a bit trippier than usual, but then Lucy's a pretty trippy person. Love it? Hate it? Hate me for not updating inj so long? Please tell me in a review! **


End file.
